Friday 5 February

Drake Passage - Day 2

We woke at 7.30am to see the ship passing an “Ice Shelf” iceberg (at a bit of a distance). From our cabin on level 5 the sea didn’t look too bad, but when we went to breakfast on level 2 the waves were crashing against the windows (washing-machine like) and waves were well above us when the ship was in a trough. 

watching the high seas outside dining room

wave against the window

[the dining room window in the photo above is the lower right window, 2-3m above water level]

Icebergs are being passed all the time and at one time snow was seen flowing past the windows.

All though we both do not feel 100%, we are not seasick – taking medicinal precautions helps.

As the morning went on the wind picked up and by lunch time it was hitting 56 knots (over 100kph) – category 9 level - and the swell is now over 6m. At lunch on a number of occasions glasses etc slid off tables and on one occasion all the glasses in the butler’s station went flying and at least 20 smashed.  Lesley got wet from the contents (luckily just water) of glasses on the next table suddenly slid off on to the floor under our table. Broken glass is all around the dining area. Staff have told us this weather and swell is unusual for this time of year, but it can get worse, with stronger winds and up to a 12m swell. Walking around is a challenge, even when holding the hand rails. The ship is VERY stable, so the breakages today were a shock to us all.

Land sighted – possibly the South Shetland Islands – so hopefully won’t be quite as rough. Iceberg alert – seeing more of these now too, the closer we get to Antarctica. Sun is out too, so that is good!

 Ahhh – in calmer waters now, and the ship is much happier! No more broken glass and seasick passengers!

This afternoon saw two whales cruising by. Our captain is finding great things for us – he rotated the ship so that we could all see the whales when he told us about them.

These past two days we have had regular talks about the flora and fauna, geography, history (Scott’s expedition), and safety and hygiene measures (in order to protect the environment here). We won’t get to see Emperor penguins because they only come in the winter. Lesley would have liked to see them, but there are plenty of others.

Tomorrow we’ll have our first landing, at Port Lockroy, where we’ll post the postcards we bought in order to get the special postmark. They will arrive long after we get home however! Our Cruise Director will organise for our passports to be stamped too.